Dynamics control systems are increasingly used in automotive vehicles to improve vehicle safety and satisfy government regulations. Examples of such systems include vehicle active safety systems such as vehicle electronic stability control (ESC) systems, comprehensive safety vehicle (CSV) systems, and vehicle lane change assist systems. For those safety systems to operate effectively, accurate and timely knowledge of vehicle dynamic states are required.
Vehicle dynamic states such as lateral acceleration, longitudinal acceleration, and yaw rate are utilized by vehicle state sensors in vehicle dynamics control systems to perform control operations. Improper installation or lifespan degradation of such state sensors may result in errors or offsets. This offset must be compensated for to insure the accuracy of the sensors. To insure no dynamic events are included, sensor compensation must only occur when the vehicle is at rest. Thus, the detection of the vehicle's resting state is necessary to insure proper sensor compensation.
One method for detecting the resting state of a vehicle requires all wheel speeds of the vehicle to become near zero. As a result, a single noisy wheel speed sensor in such a system would prevent the detection of a vehicle at rest. In addition, a vehicle might be detected at rest when, in fact, it was sliding on a slick surface with all four wheels locked. Accordingly, the need exists for a more robust system and method for detecting the resting state of a vehicle. In addition, it is desirable to implement such a system and method using the commonly available sensors previously described. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.